US President Donald Trump makes a fist at a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 presidential election by the US Congress in Washington, US, on January 6, 2021.
Jim Bourg | Reuters
President Donald Trump continued to tweet Friday night using the @ POTUS government-owned account, despite his @ realDonaldTrump account being permanently suspended by Twitter earlier in the day.
“As I’ve been saying for a long time, Twitter has gone further and further in banning free speech, and tonight Twitter employees coordinated with the Democrats and the Radical Left to remove my account from their platform to silence me” Trump wrote in a series of tweets that are no longer visible on the social media service.
The tweets were removed from the service almost immediately. It is unclear what steps Twitter took in handling the @POTUS account.
Earlier in the day, the company announced it would permanently suspend Trump’s personal account “because of the risk of further incitement to violence.”
Twitter specifically noted that Trump’s tweets earlier in the day could be interpreted as supporting rioters. The company also noted that plans for future armed protests had begun to spread inside and outside the social media service.
In his @POTUS tweets, Trump reiterated his call to repeal section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a 1996 law that protects technology companies from liability for what users post on their platforms. The sentiment was echoed by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
“I am more determined than ever to remove the protections from Big Tech (Twitter) section 230, making them immune to lawsuits,” Graham tweeted.
Trump also said his administration “has negotiated with several other sites and will make a major announcement soon.” He added that his team “is looking at the possibilities of building our own platform in the near future”.
“We Won’t Shut Up! Twitter is not about FREE SPEECH,” Trump wrote in the now-deleted tweets.
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